TV SPORTS

TV SPORTS; Slimmed-Down Schedule for an Overloaded Foreman

By Richard Sandomir

Published: December 6, 2003

After he lost his final fight, a disputed decision in 1997 to Shannon Briggs, George Foreman ignored a question for a postfight analysis from his HBO Sports colleague Larry Merchant. Instead, Foreman lifted his shirt to show the slimming effects of cooking with the fat-reducing grill that bears his name.

''I grill right in the bedroom, steaks, salmon steaks, and I was able to lose a lot of weight,'' he told a boxing audience eager to hear him say why the decision was wrong. ''I use it and the thing really works.''

On Thursday, it seemed appropriate that Foreman announced his departure from HBO Sports in a news release issued by Salton, the company that makes Foreman's line of grills and has paid him $137.5 million.

The announcement surprised HBO officials, who knew Foreman's outside workload as a preacher and a pitchman was overwhelming and who were willing to reduce his appearances to keep him happy.

But Foreman, 54, said he could not bear to resign face to face with Ross Greenburg, the president of HBO Sports. He said that he has as much of a problem saying no as he does with delivering bad news.

''I wanted to do it a month ago, but whenever I saw Ross I couldn't,'' Foreman said yesterday by telephone. ''So I did it by press release. I was going to hide.''

Foreman kept the door open for a part-time return to HBO, saying that after spending a year of quality time with his family (which includes five sons named George), they may tell him to get back to work with Merchant and Jim Lampley.

But the motivation for his decision to quit HBO for now was his failure to see his son George (nicknamed Big Will) play any of his prep school football games at Governor Dummer Academy in Byfield, Mass.

''He won the New England state championship and rushed for 100 yards in a half, and I didn't see one game,'' Foreman said. ''You know what, I've done this for 12 years, and I've got to pay attention to George or George is going to come get me.''

For however long he is gone, Foreman will be missed. He was an unpredictable, instinctive analyst who said insightful, outrageous things. Few are better at analyzing a boxer's footwork and determining whether he is in the proper position. Foreman did not prepare heavily by watching too many tapes, but, like the late Al McGuire, he married ring smarts to an idiosyncratic personality and a jack-o'-lantern smile.

But he could surprise and rile Lampley, which generated sparks during the HBO telecasts. After the second Lennox Lewis-Evander Holyfield fight, in November 1999, Foreman and Lampley discussed a coming opponent for Lewis.

''George said: 'Why should Lewis fight Michael Grant? I don't know who he is,' '' Lampley said yesterday by telephone. ''And I said, 'George, you've covered seven of his fights.' But I misapprehended that George was casting himself as John Q. Public, not himself.

''I spent all week wondering what I'd say to him when we'd have to see Grant. I had this nicely rehearsed thing, and he tapped me from behind and handed me a white box. I opened it and it was a glorious, beautiful watch, and he said something like, 'I love you.' ''

Lampley said that working beside Foreman presented a unique challenge: how to disagree with Foreman without offending the fans of a former two-time heavyweight champion and grill customers.

''I've never worked with anyone who enjoys such unanimous public support, and with someone with whom, if I differed or challenged, people would be upset with me,'' Lampley said. ''It's a tricky thing. I'd have what I felt were right, intelligent, meaningful conversations with him, and someone like Liam Neeson, a former boxer, said to me, 'Go easier with the big guy.' ''

Foreman, who will work tonight's HBO fight card and another in February, is still too busy, unable to reduce his schedule of personal appearances and corporate commitments to Salton, Meineke, Pepsi and Casual Male Big and Tall (his line of clothing comes out next year).

''I work all the time,'' he said. ''I just like to work. In 1987, when I came back, I needed a job, and when you get a second chance, you never say no. Doesn't matter what people say, a job is the best thing you can have. I've got to keep working and if HBO occasionally wants me to hang out, I'll spend time with them.''